But the Judeo-Christian tradition has a different view of a mentor.  God was the first mentor to man in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s company and in the cool of the day, they would learn the beauty of God’s creation from the creator himself.  But in one fateful day, Adam betrayed his trust and walked out of the counsel of his mentor and found himself lonely, fearful and rejected.  It was then that the idea of God as the shepherd comes in the Bible and even though Adam lost the literal presence of God in his life, he was well aware of God’s heart and knew how to get back to him in faith and sincerity even in his fallen state.  He also taught to his children the importance of God’s shepherding role for their lives in a hostile and cursed world while looking for the day when God would bring the seed of the woman to crush the heel of the serpent that had caused this havoc in their relationship with their mentor.  When Cain kills his brother Abel, God asks him the whereabouts of Abel and the answer Cain gave to God “Am I my brother’s keeper” indicates Cain’s responsibility of keeping watch over his brother.  Cain knew his responsibility well, but to deflect God’s indictment, he resorts to sarcasm.  This concept of someone’s keeper is what mentorship is all about, and the biblical word ‘good shepherd’ best describes the characteristics of a true mentor. 
Over time, the concept of mentorship in the biblical tradition, transferred to a father figure possibly because the first example of an elder brother keeping watch over his younger one had failed.  Unless there is a significant age gap, the brothers were prone to fall in the temptation of competition and self-interest but a father figure did not pose any such threat.  Figures like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and others became the mentors for their children.  Moses did not have the privilege of being mentored by his Hebrew father and yet, the Lord provided a man by the name of Jethro who would become Moses mentor for a long period of time until God would talk to Moses face to face, as a friend talks to his friend!  To continue the story, Joshua had Moses, Samuel had Eli, David had Samuel/Nathan, Elisha had Elijah until they had God himself walking amongst them in Jesus Christ and the story of mentoring continues till today. 

The word Pastor comes from the Greek word for shepherd, it had nothing to do with the office of the pastor as we understand today.  It was a characteristic of a person who keeps watch over his younger believers, who provides guidance and wise counsel for life and living in this hostile world until the protégés learn to meet God in Christ for themselves so that they would continue the work of mentoring the younger generation until the day of Christ’s coming.  There are many examples in the New Testament, and one of the best is Barnabas.  We only know a few young men he mentored but surely with his wisdom and gentleness, countless believers may have found a father figure in this old man.  One of the best known protégés of Barnabas was Saul of Tarsus (who was later known as Paul).  When Saul met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and received the miraculous transformation in his life, he spent few years in the vicinity of Damascus (Arabia) before he actually began to preach the gospel to the Jews in Damascus, and when the hostility was too great there, he moved on from Damascus and for the first time came to Jerusalem as a believer.  Until this time, Saul had faced opposition only from the non-believers; either Jews or Gentiles.  But when he came to Jerusalem, for the first time, Saul faced opposition from the believers; the Christian opposition.  The great shepherd, God himself had already made a provision for this young Pharisee so that he would not be discouraged and depressed after being rejected by the Christian community in Jerusalem.  And it was in this context that Barnabas emerges in the scene again and gives a good hearing to this young and enthusiastic Pharisee who claims to have seen Jesus.  Barnabas manages to persuade the rest of the Apostles to give Saul a chance to explain and they finally relented, but when the Jews began to notice Paul among them, fear of a backlash aroused and they took Paul to Caesarea and told him to go to his hometown Tarsus and not bother them in Jerusalem again.  Interestingly, Luke records that the church in Judea, Samaria and Galilee had great peace after they got rid of Saul!  The church in Jerusalem (including the apostles) appeared to have forgotten Saul completely for many years; and it is possible that Saul himself was discouraged and was barely managing to keep his faith alive in the midst of his hostile family and relatives.  Some theologians eulogize Paul so much that they believe he was actively preaching the gospel in Tarsus and surrounding areas during those silent years of his life, but the fact of the matter is that we never heard either Luke or Paul talking about the Churches in Tarsus or his ministry during those silent years, except in the initial period in Damascus and Jerusalem when his zeal of seeing Jesus was still a living reality to him.  But now, with many years gone between, with all probability, he was a lonely and discouraged man, making his living out of the tent making trade.  It is imaginable that he even may have questioned the very fact of Jesus’ appearance to him as year after year he saw no fruit coming out of his humble efforts of becoming the apostle of the Gentiles.  While Saul of Tarsus was going through this wilderness experience in his hometown, in front of his people, Jesus the good shepherd was also working his plans.  Not very far from Tarsus, the Holy Spirit fell in a group of Gentile believers in Antioch and as the fire of revival began to spread, the news reached to Jerusalem. 

Once again, Barnabas, the son of encouragement, was chosen by the church leadership to go and lead this newest outpost of revival at Antioch.  When this old man saw the work of God there, his heart swelled up with the goodness and mercy of God (Luke adds more color by saying that Barnabas was a good man), but sensing the need of a helper he began to see if he could find some young men and women who he could train.  As he was looking for likely candidates, suddenly he remembered Saul the Pharisee of Tarsus; a very promising young man.  Luke describes in Acts “Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch” (11:25-26).  We can only imagine the shock, the surprise, and the joy in the face of Saul when he saw Barnabas there, and with all possibility, they hugged each other and cried on each other’s shoulder for a long time.  It had been almost five years since he had last seen Barnabas in Jerusalem when he was sent to Tarsus, and these lonely and silent five years might have been the longest years in this young man’s life who was full of life and zeal but did not know which way to go.  His prayers had finally been answered in the form of a man named Barnabas, and in matter of one year, Paul begins to take the limelight and in matter of next few years, it is only Paul that we hear of and the old man is gone under the radar; gone to mentor another man called John Mark who would later compose the Gospel of Mark!  In their first missionary journey, Barnabas saw how God was using Paul and being a good man, he must have thanked God silently in his heart for giving him the privilege of mentoring such a promising servant of his Kingdom.  Although Luke records a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, but this disagreement does not remain unresolved.  In fact, when Paul grew in years and some of the men around him began to betray him, he must have longed for the company of a man like Barnabas and realizing his youthful error of judgment, he must have taken the time and reached out to Barnabas (if he was still around by then) and John Mark to put their differences behind.  The evidence of having put this difference behind comes in 2 Timothy 4:11 where Paul confesses Mark’s usefulness for his ministry even before he was put in Roman prison.  When he writes to Colossians, he makes sure that the Colossian believers understand that there was no problem between him and Mark; Mark may have come under Paul’s care possibly after the death of Barnabas or he was ministering as a go-between between Paul and Peter who also had some differences to resolve.  Paul had learned the value of being mentored and then passes on the role of mentoring to his younger companions and the first century church was able to stand up against the fiery darts of the enemy from the hands of Roman Emperors like Nero.

If a man like Apostle Paul needed a mentor, how much more we need them today in an age where there is so much reason to be depressed and discouraged.  Ironically, this is the age in which we have also seen the drought and scarcity of such mentors like Barnabas, Peter and Paul.  It has been too long since we have heard of men and women like Carey, Carmichael, Muller, Wigglesworth, Livingstone, Taylor, Teresa and Sundar Singh. The Giants of faith in the 20th century under whose influence we grew are also getting old and some of them have already finished their race but the new breed of such men and women are hard to find around.

The scene is more depressing when it comes to looking for a Christian mentor in Nepal.  After reading a small gospel booklet, I had decided to become the follower of Jesus Christ long before I met any Christian.  But the joy of finding other believers was also equally great when I first came in contact with them.  The local leader was our hero and we all wanted to become like him.  But then in one day, our faith in him was shattered when he claimed the church property for himself.  As a bewildered young Christian, I found another group of believers led by another brother.  Though I was afraid to put my trust in any man, this brother in his late 30s demonstrated a different spirit.  He had his government job as a hospital accountant, and with three little children to raise, he would always go to extra miles to meet our spiritual, social and even financial needs; he was a great source of encouragement and calming assurance to be around in times of difficulty.  The years I spent with him, never saw him loose his temper, never saw him criticize others, never saw him even become discouraged in the midst of severe hardship.  I had the privilege of being in police custody along with him, but never saw him waver in his faith even though it was possible for him to be sentenced for three to seven years in prison where as I could be released after one year.  I saw him build up the ministry from nothing and today with God’s blessings upon his life heads up the largest denomination in Nepal.  He never had the opportunity to go to a formal theological seminary but what he lacked in formal training; he made it up with his personal study and is one of the best preachers and teachers of God’s word in Nepal today.  He not only did his own studies, he also opened doors for formal theological studies for many men and women like me and many of us would not hesitate to say that it was because of this brother that we have done what we are doing now.  He became our Barnabas and will always have that place of honor and respect in our hearts.

Sadly, due to my differences with the then denominational leaders, I moved out of the denomination and since then lost touch with this humble man of God.  He had sent me to teach in their Bible School in Kathmandu, and after one and half year, my maverick spirit got on the way of others who were not used to mentoring their protégés because they themselves were looking for ladders to climb their personal ambitions.  As I began to chart my own course, I longed for a man like him but the rigid nature of that denomination at that time demonized me so much that it was impossible for me to get back to the man that I had missed so much.  But my search for a mentor never stopped, I continued to look for.  But till today, my search has always disappointed me just like I was disappointed in the first place.  Such disappointment comes for few reasons and one of them is the nature of greatness in the ministry in Nepal.  If you ask any ordinary Christians and ministers as who are the great Pastors and preachers in Nepal today, they would point out to the man or a woman who has earned the most money, who has built the biggest house for self, who has bought the most expensive car and who invites the most number of foreign donors and preachers to his or her church/ministry.  There is no mention of the man and woman’s spiritual, moral and ministerial qualities.  The greatness is measured by the amount of wealth collected from the donors, and every new minister who comes in the scene looks at these great examples and works hard to find ways to do the same and the church of Jesus Christ continues to be disgraced in the eyes of the watching world.  For this case, I am grateful to Ramesh Khatry for keeping me on the run.  At one time when he began to attend our church, I had thought that the Lord has finally provided me a mentor.  Lord did provide, the only difference was that Kahtry’s methods were motivated for my destruction where as Rev. Joseph Shrestha wanted me to succeed in life and ministry.  Amazingly, the outcome is the same and I am grateful to God for both of them.